Wedding budgeting and help on basics

digitalphase

Thanks, I know we don't have to have rings, and OH may not bother but I'd like one. It's really the only part of the wedding that will be traditional though :rotfl:

Once we've finally got our new house sorted out I can get a few more things planned, but ATM everything is up in the air and a worry. Need to complete by end of month or we are homeless! :eek:

I am totally fine with a supermarket bouquet. I love flowers, but they are expensive and is a luxury we cannot afford.
I will probably look into a cake, but future mother in law may well make one for us.

Idiophreak

74jax wrote: »

and also to consider the cost of extra beauty treatments before the wedding (idiophreak:j).

You make me sound so metrosexual

digitalphase wrote: »

My OH has suit trousers (he doesn't like them so may buy himself some new ones) and can get a nice shirt and tie. Our little boy will be happy in similar outfit, and cheap as chips for him. Another £40 I suppose.

You've just got to be a litttle careful....you can easily find a lot of things that would be "another £40 - and that's quite an issue on your budget. I imagine if you shop around, supermarkets etc you'll be able to get something really smart for the little chap for not many pounds.

digitalphase wrote: »

I am still stuck on what to do after the event. I am not too keen on 'going back to ours' as the house needs quite a lot of modernisation and I doubt we'll have made a good enough impact yet to warrant showing it off. However saying that, it would only be close family coming, so maybe it doesn't matter too much.

May look into costs of hiring a small venue/small disco...Finger buffet.Dunno, prices will no doubt sky rocket.

Just my opinion, obviously, but I'd just use your house. On your budget, there's no sense in paying to use another space when you've got space enough to use - and you'll be able to drink cheap as chips bubbly etc as a wedding toast, which is a bonus.

If you're thinking of renewing your vows in the future, do the party then and leave the wedding day as an intimate day between you and your family. Trust me, you'll remember every minute of that day, whatever you do.

digitalphase wrote: »

Not thought about cake/flowers or anything yet, but will be happy holding a small posy during ceremony. M&S also do some nice cakes I believe.

For only 20 people, I'd look at either making, or buying a regular cake. Our local farm shop does *lovely* cakes in a bunch of different flavours for £4 each and serve around 12 people each. Mmm, pear and custard cake! If you want, do some icing on top, add a topper etc - but the advantage of having a nice, low-key wedding is that a regular, tasty cake fits right in

...and there's nothing wrong with supermarket flowers. I bought my wife a dozen roses for our anniversary yesterday - £4 and they're really lovely. Get a couple of bunches from Mr Ts, a length of ribbon and they'll look a million dollars.

Now, having advocated saving lots of money - a couple of things to spend on

Have you thought much about photos? It's just lovely to have a book of pictures to look at - whoever's going to do the pictures, you should budget for getting at least some photos printed.

The wedding night - you may not be bothered...and I guess you're not having a honeymoon, but it would be really nice to get away with your new hubby either on the night or the next day, just to have some peace alone together and reflect on your lovely day. A couple of thoughts on this
1) Without getting into the usual debate (please, god no!!) you could hint to a couple of your friends/family that you'd love to have the money to get away for the night - you never know what might turn up as a wedding gift
2) "Get away" at home, a wedding staycation. Get yourself a bottle of plonk, some candles, rose petals for the bath tub and unplug the phone for a couple of days.

Gosh, I'm getting goo-y in my old age

Idiophreak

Oh...and on wedding rings...If your OH isn't fussed, how about getting him a silver/titanium one? Much cheaper, and look good and manly.

Do you have any prejudices against getting them from amazon, argos etc? If not, you could look at doing some surveys or something and use vouchers to save a few more quid...

picklepick

Re the rings: You can get cheap rings yes, but if you do, don't expect to be still wearing the same ring for the next 50 years. If it doesn't bother you that you might have to replace your rings when they get bent or snap, then that's ok. I just didn't want you to be upset when it happened. We paid extra for heavier rings in hard wearing materials so they will last as long as we do.
Just something to consider.
Good luck.

EDIT. Titanium is hard wearing. Silver is a really soft metal and it will bend and get scratched easily. Thin gold bands are likely to snap. I've seen threads on here from people who bought an Argos thin band and were upset that it had snapped.

faithless

Yeah, I'd always fancied a titanium wedding band, my OH is having one because they're strong and I like the colour, but then I realised the engagement ring and wedding band have to be the same metal or one will wear the other away, so I had to get platinum.

If you're planning to get an engagament ring in the future you'll have to bear that in mind when choosing your wedding band.

digitalphase

Thanks, OH has said that he doesn't want to wear a ring as he isn't a jewellery person (knew that already but a ring isn't like a necklace!), but he quite rightly pointed out it wouldn't be ideal for his line of work. So at least that either a) saves money or b) leaves more in the kitty for a nice ring for me :rotfl: I want one anyway.

Good point about keeping the same metals. I hadn't thought of that, though for aesthetic reasons it looks better anyway to both be the same.

I don't really want to get a ring from Argos (and OH wouldn't even if I did!) as got a bit of a stigma. So would rather buy from a local jeweller or online. I do not mind a second hand ring, and have had a little look.

We'll use the house as an after-venue. It's going to be small anyway, just close family, so no worries if we're in the middle of redecorating That way food can be prepared night before and drinks bought cheaply. £100 will certainly get us some nice party food, or I even thought about ordering in a Chinese!

It would be lovely to have some time away, however having only just got in our own house we won't be too keen for a break (getting in the house after all this stress is reward enough!), and also we'd want our little guy with us. I wouldn't be able to enjoy it if I was away from him for a night not while he's so young.

I think wedding presents will be easy as we'll just ask for home improvement vouchers

My mum got a £80 from a tax rebate she is sending me, so that will go towards it

*miaomiao*

Can I recommend that you go shopping for a vintage or antique ring from reputable jewelers in your area? That might help! I have had luck with this before when buying gifts.

Maysie

A good search on ebay and local to you might turn up a bargain dress.

i dunno how i did it but i found my dress on ebay brand new in the uk for £50 buy it now. It started in the shops at £1300ish. sold the veil that came with it free for £26. so a bargain dress apart from alterations grrr .

For instance this is wedding dress search is by lowest price including pp,uk only and auction only. http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/Wedding-Dresses-/15720/i.html?_sop=15&_nkw=wedding+dress&LH_PrefLoc=1&rt=nc&LH_Auction=1
first dress is 10p collection only ! If you also use the right hand side drop down and put in postcode and search by nearest you might find a bargain.

continualdiamond

We did our wedding for £2,700.

Actual ceremony cost was £395 as we chose a venue as didn't want to get married in our local registry office. If we did have a basic registry office ceremony it would of been between £45-£65. Price would of been nearly £200 for a longer ceremony.

Our venue cost was £300 from 11am-11pm. We got married and had the reception in the same place.

I had a £90 wedding dress from Monsoon that amazingly once I decided to order it was in the sale. I found it when it was full price, which was £180, come a week or so later to order it and bonus it was in the sale.

Our wedding car was free as was our wedding cake, they were both wedding gifts from people. We had 3 photographers, 2 free and one only £50. Two were found by myself, people building up portfolios and wanted low key weddings to gain experience, another a friend of my mother in laws who wanted to gain experience as well.

We have loadsssss of photos which is just fantastic as every photographer had different ideas.

I got an £8 headband from accessorize for my headpiece, just simple little sparkly gems and my something borrowed was my veil from a friend.

£30 shoes from next that were purchased to wear and wear again.

40 invites cost me £27 off ebay to have printed with envelopes and then I bought a pack of gems, teal card and a butterfly cutter and jazzed up the invites.

£2,700 accounts for everything, right down to thank you cards and thank you gifts for family and friends. I kept a log of anything I bought to do with the wedding, including doing our own wedding album afterwards.

Good luck finding what you like/want. Its loadsss of fun, enjoy it.

noodlepoopsie

If it's any use, TK Maxx have wedding dresses for £39.99
I tried one on the other day, it was really beautiful! Not 'the one' for me, but if I was on a small-a-budget as you, I'd be happy to buy it!